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Footprints of an achiever

By Tons Fetepigi
19 November 2015   |   12:52 am
FROM the outset, Governor Seriake Dickson, a visionary politician, tried, tested, had no illusions about the multifarious problems besetting the state of the Ijaw nation.
Dickson1

Dickson

FROM the outset, Governor Seriake Dickson, a visionary politician, tried, tested, had no illusions about the multifarious problems besetting the state of the Ijaw nation.

With his background as a successful lawyer and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, he lost no time in tackling them for the overall benefit of the people.  Today, he has recorded tremendous milestones in all directions of human endeavour.
In coming on board, Dickson and his patriotic team knew that the Ijaw people had witnessed, perpetual deprivation, marginalization and abuses, against us by our conscienceless men of satanic values, and was out to stop this.

Speaking after taking the oath of office in his first tenure, the amiable governor stressed that “my vision is to build a new Bayelsa State of peace, unity and good neighbourliness and a state that can compete favourably with other states in even development and improve, the standards of living that can make Bayelsans and all Ijaw-speaking people proud.”

He has kept the promise to the glory of God Almighty.  When he took over as governor, the state was in dire straits as earlier stated, but as a leader walking with destiny and total dedication to God, surmounted the challenges left behind by the previous government of “talk & no do.”

All abandoned health centres as well as General Hospitals are having a new look, medical personnel are being trained while qualified doctors are encouraged to go on specialist courses for the benefit of the state, despite financial constraints. Road network is one area Dickson’s administration has shown much interest; his desire is to link all the Senatorial Districts with roads that will last the test of time.  However, Bayelsians are aware that we are in the most difficult territory and the most resistant zone where road construction work costs several times higher than what obtains in the rest of the country.

Nevertheless, the Dickson administration has taken the lead to construct befitting roads.
The administration has made it possible for people to drive their cars to Agbere in Sagbama Local Government Area where, hitherto, the journey was made by speed boats. For forty years, the people of Nembe Local Government had waited to drive home but it was a nightmare, but the government of Dickson made it possible for them to drive home.

The road to link the Southern Ijaw areas with Yenagoa is ongoing simultaneously with the internal road network within the state capital.

The Ijaw people had suffered a lot in the hands of those who exploited us to our detriment and called us as “our traditional allies” only to milk us dry without conscience.  The governor was aware of these satanic agents of exploitation and on assuming office identified the place of the Ijaw. He urged the people to unite and give the oil-producing ethnic nationality a new direction, and this he did, bringing into his cabinet Ijaw people from neighbouring states as a mark of solidarity with them. He has built a (multi- billion naira) monumental Ijaw House and the Ijaw people will remain grateful to him forever.  The edifice which stands conspicuously in the centre of Yenagoa, is a tourist attraction.

Governance is a complex maze that permeates all facets of human existence and is ridden with multiplicity of constraints and yet “The Ofirima Pepe” of our time, has performed gloriously to the people of Ijaw land and the nation.

Therefore, the forthcoming governorship election is not about Seriake Dickson but the fate of the Ijaw.  The Ijaw have no alternative to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and any other consideration will be a betrayal and sell-out.
We have endorsed the PDP as the message of the Ijaw people, with Seriake Dickson as the messenger, spreading it to the people.

Therefore all Ijaw people wherever they are should support the message and rally round the messenger without sentiment.
It should be known to all and sundry that, the messenger is the chosen son of the Ijaw and any other one opposing the messenger should be seen as an agent of the arid desert, and such a person must be ignored.
The last few years had seen steady and monumental changes in the state, in the areas of infrastructural development that had never been.

In the next four years of his tenure, the state would see massive industrial development that would baffle the citizenry. The Bayelsa Economic Summit which industrial experts from all walks of life attended had promised to improve the state by pulling Bayelsans out of defeatism.

Dickson’s Administration has brought a renewal of faith and confidence in the leadership of the state which now occupies a position of integrity, respectability among fellow Nigerians.  Bayelsans today are no longer looked down with scorn.  The governor in his first tenure called for Bayelsans’ support through people’s power to direct a united state with a single aim: their welfare. The people obliged him.

The acceptance of Dickson’s leadership lie pervasive sense of responsibility and the absolute confidence in his towers which made him in the past four years subtlety supervisory sensitive, remorseful and which impelled him to fellow every enterprise, every project, every plan every enquiry demanding for explanation where the need arises.

The unique understanding of the human nature of the governor is the source of the peace and tranquility that has reigned in the state.
In the terrain there are a lot of pretenders, and we must not fall for their diabolical antics because some of them had been there and did not perform.

Let us not allow strangers who have no love for Ijaw land. Their only interest is oil and gas exploration and exploitation in Ijawland and to place us under perpetual marginalization and bondage.

The movement to free ourselves from these agents of darkness is gathering momentum and we can only do this by rejecting their overtures and keep faith with the Ijaw principle of fairness, commitment, love and togetherness to the glory of the land.
As you go to the polls remain vigilant, and make sure your votes are protected.  With God on our side December 5, 2015, will be a day of victory for our deprived citizenry.
•Fetepigi, a former lawmaker and veteran journalist, wrote in from Nembe, Bayelsa State.

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